Workplace discrimination is an experience that, despite four decades of equality legislation, continues to blight the lives of thousands every year. Discrimination persists on the protected grounds ...of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion or belief and gender reassignment, as well as where no legal protection exists such as in relation to class background or migration status. The Handbook discusses recent changes in equality legislation as well as considering the limitations of legal frameworks in addressing inequality. However, complying with the law is only the first step towards addressing discrimination in the workplace, and the book goes beyond the law and provides evidence of good practice in promoting organisational culture change, as well as considering future directions for policy on equality action. The Gower Handbook of Discrimination at Work looks at both social justice and business case perspectives, and its message is not a negative one. The contributors have considerable depth of understanding of workplace discrimination, both as academics and equality practitioners, their work has contributed to policy formation and all are committed to improving the lives of people at work. They offer insights into existing international developments and make suggestions for the ways in which positive change can be realised. Practitioners, such as human resources professionals and other managers involved in addressing equality at work, trade unionists, equality trainers, and academics concerned with researching or teaching in the areas of employment and equality will all find this book of interest. Furthermore, it will be of value to students in the fields of business and management, employment law, equality and diversity and human resource management.
Tessa Wright has written and researched in the areas of discrimination and equality at work for many years. During her 12 years as an equality researcher and editor at the Labour Research Department, she wrote and researched widely on the discrimination faced by women, ethnic minorities, disabled workers and lesbians and gay men in workplace, as well as trade union responses. Since moving to the Working Lives Research Institute at London Metropolitan University, Tessa has continued to develop her interest in effective measures to combat discrimination at work, working on a range of European and UK research projects. She is completing a PhD at the Centre for Research in Equality and Diversity, Queen Mary, University of London on the experiences of women working in non-traditionally female occupations, examining the intersections of gender, sexuality and class. Hazel Conley started her working life as a bank clerk, where she quickly noted gendered and racialised workplace segregation along with the subtle and not so subtle discrimination that followed. In 1989 Hazel decided to enter higher education. It was here that she began to understand the theories and concepts that sought to explain discrimination at work. She has researched and published extensively, particularly on the ways in which labour market segmentation, especially in relation to non-standard forms of work, can result in discrimination and disadvantage. Her recent work focuses on the discrimination and equality legislation, examining its strengths and limitations as a tool for fighting discrimination.
Still 'a good job for a woman'? Conley, Hazel; Jenkins, Sarah
Gender, work, and organization,
September 2011, Letnik:
18, Številka:
5
Journal Article
Recenzirano
"This article examines women teachers' experiences of modernization in schools in England and Wales. The article explores the impact of modernization on their work and non-work lives and why, in some ...cases, modernization has made it impossible for them to remain in the occupation. The evidence presented suggests that modernization has resulted in the intensification and extensification of teaching to such an extent that it is increasingly difficult to combine a teaching career with primary family care responsibilities. Given that teaching is a female-dominated occupation, this has serious implications for government education policy. We argue that the modernization project in the UK has been a driving force for the adverse gender impact that is undermining equality of opportunity for women teachers." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku). Forschungsmethode: empirisch; Befragung. Die Untersuchung bezieht sich auf den Zeitraum 2005 bis 2006.
Trade unions in the UK have traditionally followed a voluntarist strategy that has preferred collective bargaining and avoided the use of the law wherever possible. The exception to this has been in ...relation to the pursuit of equal pay between women and men. This article examines this apparent contradiction by examining the ways in which British trade unions have used the equality legislation in the past to secure equal pay through the courts. The article further considers recent legislative changes that, by adopting a reflexive approach, appeared to open up ways for equality bargaining to take place. Unfortunately the conclusion is not a positive one as political conservatism in relation to equality and judicial animosity towards trade unions have secured the status quo, ironically forcing trade unions to continue to use adversarial legal methods to pursue equal pay.
This article critically examines the potential for 'new actors' in industrial relations to use developments in equality law to challenge government economic policy. The author draws on documentary ...analysis of the Fawcett Society's attempt to gain a judicial review of the 2010 emergency budget alongside legal theory in relation to reflexive regulation and literature that examines 'new actors' in industrial relations. The aim is to stimulate debate on the role of the state and social movements in pursuing gender equality and how the latter might compete with or complement the role of trade unions. The concluding argument is that, while reflexive legislation provides opportunities for social movements to complement trade union activity, the role of the state remains contradictory, ultimately thwarting legal enforcement of equality when its economic authority and the interests of capital are threatened.
Labour market segregation continues to be a major barrier to gender equality, with the construction industry an example of a particularly male-dominated sector. Drawing on evidence from the Women ...into Construction project, established to increase women’s opportunities to work on the construction of London’s Olympic Park, the article argues that public procurement is a potentially powerful tool for breaking down gender segregation. This is particularly effective when new forms of responsive and reflexive legislation require private sector contractors to achieve social objectives. The authors argue that this could be made more effective through greater powers of engagement for stakeholders, including trade unions.
Drawing on theories of responsive and reflexive legislation and gender mainstreaming, this article examines the implementation of the gender equality duty and the Single Status Agreement in five ...English local authorities between 2008 and 2010. Both of these initiatives coincided with the global financial crisis. The data highlights how organizational restructuring following budget cuts resulted in the separation of these two important initiatives between equality and human resource management teams, preventing the duty from reaching the high expectations of the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Women and Work Commission. The reliance on equal pay legislation and the failure to use the gender equality duty missed an opportunity to move away from adversarial forms of legislation and towards more responsive forms of regulation of pay equality.
This paper revisits Jewson and Mason's seminal theoretical framework on liberal and radical approaches to equal opportunity policy and practice by applying it to our research on the implementation of ...the Gender Equality Duty in UK local government. Conducted at the height of Thatcherism, Jewson and Mason's research offers a useful platform for assessing equality initiatives in local government during periods of political hostility to equality underpinned by cuts to public services, which in more recent time is ascribed to austerity. Drawing on qualitative research in five case study local authorities, this paper assesses strategies for protecting and promoting gender equality practices and policies in the face of change within public services. We analyse three types of politics of equality (political philosophy, organizational politics and party politics) that feature in Jewson and Mason's analysis. In line with recent feminist research, our data indicate that equality specialists continue to use both liberal and radical discourses in instrumental ways to promote equality and resist change as described by Jewson and Mason, but these were more clearly framed within business case arguments influenced by the modernization agenda of the 1990s. Our data indicate that even business case arguments have been unable to protect equality initiatives from the 2010 coalition government's austerity and cuts agenda.
This article examines the networking that takes place within formally organized internal (organization‐based) and external (industry‐based) women engineers' networks. Drawing upon 48 interviews with ...women engineers, across a number of industries and seniority levels, mostly in the UK, the article contributes to the scarce empirical literature examining formal women's networking in engineering, in terms of its role in individual support and collective change. By adopting Allen's (1998, 1999) definition of feminist power and shifting the focus of analysis from merely instrumental to other types of networking activities, the study contributes empirically and theoretically to understanding how internal and external women's networking has the potential to help female engineers to stay in and change the profession. Despite the critiques that formal women's networks lack power and the ability to make a positive difference for women, when feminist conceptualizations of power are adopted, women's networking within these networks can be considered to empower them in a variety of ways. Our data identifies that wider networking within external women's networks can be particularly useful as a force for change.
Since the 1960s, British trade unions have developed a policy for representing the interests of part-time workers, a significant process of frame extension within a mature social movement. This ...article seeks to account for this change. It concludes that change was a product of the growth of feminist activism within unions, the deployment of instrumental and solidarity frames and a response to political opportunities provided by both the British state and European Union.
Temporary employment in GB is discussed as a concrete aspect of job insecurity in the public sector. Though the threat of insecure temporary work here is generally considered low (6%), a reanalysis ...of statistical data suggests more ominous numbers. This is accomplished by comparing temporary workers in each sector as a % of the total workforce for that sector, rather than relying on a simple head count of temporary workers. The relationship between central government policies - particularly state restructuring, which has led to decreases in the provision of public services - and the increase in job insecurity for temporary workers in public sector employment is described. In addition, it is suggested that the concentration of temporary contracts within certain social groups may offer an inferior type of employment to workers who are already disadvantaged. In-depth case studies of two local authorities and their attendant local education authorities conducted 1996-1998 support these arguments at both the city and county levels. The significant human costs to workers associated with state-level decisions to attempt to improve efficiency and flexibility by shifting to temporary work contracts are explored. 1 Figure, 18 References. K. Hyatt Stewart
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